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Topic: The Orville premiere on Fox (Read 13900 times)

I watched the premiere episode of the Orville. I was unusual to say the least. The special effects weren't bad. They have some creative people in their art department. The aliens were in some cases rather interesting looking. The sets weren't too bad. They had some interesting story concepts mixed in with smart alec comedy in weird moments. It was like they couldn't decide how much it should be science fiction and how much should be comedy. I have no idea how this will go over with the viewers.

I'm curious if anyone else saw this and if so, what do you think? I'm still trying to figure out if it's something worth watching regularly..

My pet theory is that this was actually intended to be part of the star trek universe, sort of a spinoff, and all sorts of constraints were added to the humour etc to make it fit, and late into the process it was rewritten at a superficial level to remove the startrek franchise connection.

I don't have any particular expectation this is what happened but it would explain the mystery nicely.

My pet theory is that this was actually intended to be part of the star trek universe, sort of a spinoff

It's best understood as Seth MacFarlane fan fiction--he wanted to make his own Star Trek show, like continuing Next Generation, and he makes so much money for Fox that they simply said yes, yes, whatever you want, Seth... As to whether they imposed the comedy on the show or that is simply his default position, I suspect the latter. It's impossible for him to play anything serious and he always has to add in a sex joke.

"But the most shocking fact about “The Orville for most people is that it’s an hour long, and fundamentally uninterested in being a comedy. So many “Orville” scenes just die in the moment, because MacFarlane’s comedy instincts as a writer (he wrote the pilot, at the least) means that he can’t avoid writing in jokes. But this show does genuinely want to be a sci-fi adventure, so the comedy is either played completely deadpan, or not played at all. After watching the actual show, its intentions became clear: Seth wanted to cosplay being captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. And Fox let him do it.

The 1990s “Star Trek” era, from “The Next Generation” to “Deep Space Nine” to “Voyager,” isn’t necessarily television that should be held up in comparison to the quote-unquote “Golden Age.” But it was well-produced for its time, and more importantly, nurtured some great storytelling and characters even while working within a largely standalone format. “DS9” was even an early and impactful example of how well serialized storytelling might work in genre programming, which led to “Battlestar Galactica,” “Lost,” and many other great shows."

"The headline above invokes three different ways the show is bankrupt: creatively, morally, and ethically. The lack of creativity is clear, given how it takes the basic framework of a “Trek” series and files off the serial numbers. But morally, it’s hard to imagine how anyone involved with this project could be comfortable with walking onto that set, watching those episodes, and seeing how blatant the imitation is. And ethically, it’s frustrating to see that the systems put into place to keep creators from ripping others off in such a blatant manner failed here.

The lack of creativity does not extend to the characters of the show, for the record. Certainly MacFarlane, as Ed, never gets much of a personality beyond his love of pop culture, while many members of the supporting cast represent paradigms established by the previously airing “Trek” series, some of them might represent the most creativity involved in “The Orville,” period. A few unique alien races are introduced, and Alara, a young inexperienced security officer of the Xelayan race (Halston Sage) especially makes an impression for being both super-tiny and super-strong, bringing a new dynamic to many of the show’s action scenes.

Here is another nice thing to say about “The Orville”: While the writing around MacFarlane’s and Palicki’s characters more often than not plays into some of the “dumbo man”/”nagging women” tropes that form the foundation of most “Family Guy” narratives, there is something of an effort made to not be super-misogynist. And there is a same-sex relationship that is never played for laughs."

I gotta say, I was prepared to hate this thing, but wound up enjoying it more than any other recent stuff. Seth may be the best ST Capt. since Shatner; even though this is not technically a franchise show-as a matter of fact, I think the bigwigs that control the Trek empire should throw these guys some $$$ to get it into the fold. I tend to REALLY hate most modern CG-techniques, but for some reason it didn't bother me this time [give me an old "Godzilla" any day,usually]. I don't think they should push it more than 10-dozen episodes, though, probably go flat by then. Almost every cliche in the book, but somehow fresh.

One hour pilot episodes for grand adventure shows are risky. Could have been better. Humor is strange thing, and not a universal. Seth's humor is even more binary. Hopefully it will be more adventure and only accidental humor. Farscape and Firelfy and SG1 had humor, even some episodes of Star Trek Series'. Had Men in Black vibe to it.

There was also a possible conspiracy in the first episode with his wife and the Admiral.

Seth is promising more serious and dark episodes too.

There have been plenty of stories about hapless commanders or accidental heroes.

They may have wanted a ST parody, but then again, have a walk tight rope with Paramount lawyers.

I just want to add that the aliens (Krill??)...are the worst shots in the universe...seemed that every shot the Orville away team took dropped an alien....every shot the aliens took never hit anyone...yes, yes, I know, McFarlane does get it but it's "just a flesh wound"....lol..

This show gets canceled before six episodes....it's not funny and it's not good scifi...

One hour pilot episodes for grand adventure shows are risky. Could have been better. Humor is strange thing, and not a universal. Seth's humor is even more binary. Hopefully it will be more adventure and only accidental humor. Farscape and Firelfy and SG1 had humor, even some episodes of Star Trek Series'. Had Men in Black vibe to it.

There was also a possible conspiracy in the first episode with his wife and the Admiral.

It didn't really sound like a conspiracy - it simply sounds like she has a huge secret(Any guesses? She's now an Admiral herself? She's got a cybernetic body now? She's got a fatal illness? She's now a quasi-omnipotent super-being?)

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Seth is promising more serious and dark episodes too.

There have been plenty of stories about hapless commanders or accidental heroes.

They may have wanted a ST parody, but then again, have a walk tight rope with Paramount lawyers.

Sci-fi aside, I'm wondering what other show can this one be most closely compared to, style-wise?

I'm reminded a bit of a show like The Tick (live-action version), which had some over-the-top absurdity.Which makes me think that if a show like The Orville works, then something like it could work in the superhero genre.

It didn't really sound like a conspiracy - it simply sounds like she has a huge secret(Any guesses? She's now an Admiral herself? She's got a cybernetic body now? She's got a fatal illness? She's now a quasi-omnipotent super-being?)

It was a conspiracy, but not an ominous one--as the admiral said, he and her father were close friends. She asked him for a favor, to give her ex-husband a command so that he could redeem himself after he fell apart after the divorce. The admiral took a chance and gave him the command, and also gave her the assignment as first officer.

It's just a favor, and probably nothing more. In the hands of a better writer (MacFarlane wrote the episode) the whole thing could have been much more interesting. Instead, it started out with a lazy writer's trope about a guy catching his wife in bed with another man, which has been done on other shows this year. If they had just skipped that scene, the story arc would have been more believable and meaningful.

The 1990s “Star Trek” era, from “The Next Generation” to “Deep Space Nine” to “Voyager,” isn’t necessarily television that should be held up in comparison to the quote-unquote “Golden Age.” But it was well-produced for its time, and more importantly, nurtured some great storytelling and characters even while working within a largely standalone format. “DS9” was even an early and impactful example of how well serialized storytelling might work in genre programming, which led to “Battlestar Galactica,” “Lost,” and many other great shows."

<snip>

Rhetorical question for Ms. Miller:Really? If you're looking for broadcast television, science-fiction gold-standard of characters, settings, and storytelling in a strongly serial format, there can be only ONE: Babylon 5. But you trot out DS9 as the example.

(And you use "impactful" as a word.)

(Side note: And then there are the suspicions that Paramount executives injected concepts from JMS' B5 pitch that they received and rejected into DS9--have those suspicions ever been confirmed or disproved?)

It's very interesting on how the "conspiracy" and the (rather juvenile to be honest) jokes get discussed, yet the biggest logical fallacy of the episode is not: where the heck is the water, carbon dioxide and nutrients for the sequoia plant coming from? I do hope it goes for longer than "Powerless" did last season. The good thing about Sunday shows is less competition.

That show had some truly awful acting and its visual effects aged horribly. So much that it's not really watchable without nostalgia goggles.

Any new serious Star Trek show is going to be compared to previous Star Trek shows, but also to other serious TV-shows from recent times. If a new Star Trek series came out now, with the same seriousness of previous series, people would compare it to Game of Thrones, breaking bad, etc. They would expect a top quality show, and question why redshirts are so prone to dying, why the main cast is immortal, why there is no sex, crime, love, hate, corruption, death? A new Star Trek series would feel really out of date and unrealistic if it didn't do these things, and it wouldn't feel like Star Trek if it did.

The recent movies don't deal with this because they're action movies.The Seth Macfarlane creation doesn't deal with this because it's a sitcom situated on a starship.

IMO, a new sci-fi space series in space needs to get its source material from something that's more suited to contemporary serious TV drama. There is one literary source that would make for an excellent modern (HBO-style) drama, with technology, politics and intrigue already written: